Copywriting and Researching go Hand in Hand

June 19^th 2012 Sally Ormond content generation, copywriting tips, marketing tips

Have you ever wondered how a copywriter is able to write about lots of different things?

Every day they write copy about a vast range of products, services and industries, convincing the public to buy things.

They must be creative geniuses with massive brains to store all that information.

Of course, they could also be great researchers.

How to research your way to genius status

When you think about a copywriter’s day, you probably visualise them sitting in front of their computer writing. And that’s all they do until it’s time to go home.

Wrong.

When starting a project a copywriter doesn’t write straight away, before that happens they have to research.

If someone asked you to build a house, you wouldn’t just rock-up at the site and start laying the foundations. You would have meetings to discuss the type of house they wanted, what permissions would have to be sought, the type and number of windows needed etc.

The same goes for the copywriter. They have to research:

You - what exactly do you want to achieve with the project?
Your company - what is your brand, ethos, tone of voice?
Your customers - What type of people are they? What is it that they need?
Your product or service - What is it? How does it work? How does it benefit your customers?
Your competition - Who else is in your market place? How does your product/service differ from theirs

You see, there’s a lot of background information they need to understand before they can start creating the copy.

Taking a short cut

Does that sound like a lot of hard work to you?

Well, if you’re tempted to take a short cut, don’t.

If you base your copy on guess work, you won’t produce content that blends with their brand, it won’t resonate with their customers and it won’t sell a bean.

You may have saved yourself some time, but you’ve gained a very unhappy client because you’ve produced second rate copy that was a waste of money.

That’s why research is so important.

Tags: content generation, copywriting tips, marketing tips

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